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WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 4, 2015Anirban LahiriMIAMI, FLORIDA PAUL SYMES: Anirban, many thanks for joining us ahead of your debut in the World Golf Championships ‑ Cadillac Championship. I guess your excitement levels are pretty high right now. ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, it is exciting. This is my first time here, and it's been fabulous. It's been fantastic. I got here on Saturday night and it's only gotten better since then. So I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. PAUL SYMES: And I guess the form you're in at the moment, and the course and the field this week, don't really hold any fears for you? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I just have to go out there and play the way I've been playing. At the end of the day, whether I play well in Asia or Europe or here, you're still trying to do the same thing. Take the least number of shots, put the ball in the hole and I just need to do that. PAUL SYMES: You've got obviously your European Tour card through the Qualifying School last year, fast forward three months and you've won twice already. It's been a real whirlwind for you. ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, it's been a good whirlwind. Everybody hopes for whirlwinds like that. It's been fantastic. I've always believed that I can win, and win in big events and I'm glad that it happened. It kind of just made that belief a reality, and that helps my confidence obviously coming into weeks like this. It's time for me to take the next step and prove that I can compete, contend and maybe even win in events like this. PAUL SYMES: Obviously Patrick Reed proved he was able last year, winning on debut. ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, I mean, that's a big ask, and I think that's fabulous for Patrick. Why, just goes to show, it's possible and it's doable. Why not. Q. Did you start golf because it was something you could do with your dad, or you started playing around the time that Tiger won his first Masters; so what was a bigger influence? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think for me it was‑‑ all right. Let me give you a little quick catch‑up. I'm an Army brat. My dad is still serving and he's going to hang up his boots the end of this year. In India, foremost people in the Armed Forces golf is a major recreation, and we've got a lot of ‑‑ and when I say "we," the Armed Forces have a lot of golf courses. My dad got attracted to the game when I was a lot younger than when I actually started, and when I did start, I was about eight. And I just would go and hang out with him in the evenings. I used to love playing cricket and football and everything else, but also, I would just go out there and I would go pick up golf balls for him and we would go chip, putt for 15 minutes because it was getting dark. And that's how it all started. As I started doing more of that, it was all about trying to beat him. And then when I did manage to do that, he got me a ladies set and I started playing. And I was the only person on the golf course who was under the age of 30 who used to play golf. For me it was just hanging out and having fun with dad and some of his friends. Then I played a junior event when I was about 12. That's the first time I saw kids my age play the sport. I didn't even know other kids played. Because that's how big golf was in India. It's not the same today, thankfully. But to answer the second part of your question, I think it was coincidental that it was around the same time that Tiger became or started becoming who he would eventually. The legendary win at Augusta was probably when I was just about eight or nine, so it is coincidental, and that's when I started obviously getting inspired. I mean, you couldn't help but be inspired by things he did when you were kids. Q. If your dad was not a doctor in the military, would you have not found your way to golf? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think one of the issues in India, there's not as many courses as America. It's not as public a sport. And yeah, a lot of the credit for my exposure to the game goes not just to my dad but also to the Armed Forces. Q. I was going to ask, you've got a big week this week, it's been a whirlwind couple weeks but you can't help but think at the big event in Augusta in a few weeks' time. How do you keep yourself focused, and what have you done in relation to organizing tee times with former players and that sort of thing? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: To answer your first question, obviously for me, it's been a big step up from where I was, say, two months back. Obviously my schedule has done a 360, and I've had to sit down and look at that very seriously, and the very real possibility of playing a lot of golf in America and having a realistic chance of trying to get my card up here which is obviously one of my goals and pretty much any event that I play in from here is going to be huge from me. They are all great opportunities for me to come out here and do what I really want to do, which is to play out here. And Augusta is obviously‑‑ it's one of those things that everybody dreams of playing. And not a lot of Indians have played the event, so it's very special for me personally. It's very special for everybody back home. I'm just taking it one step at a time. I think when you have a period of golf like I have recently, it's very easy to get ahead of yourself and start projecting into the future. I think that's one of things that I've kind of improved upon over the last few years. I've kind of matured. Like I said, I'm happy that I've played seven years in Asia and kind of progressed slowly. If it was an overnight thing that was happening, if I was just a young professional, say, two years into my career, it would be very easy for me to jump ahead. But I know that that's probably the one thing that I have to avoid, so I'm just taking it one step at a time, soaking it all in, trying to gain as much experience and learn, because it's going to be a lot of new experiences for me especially out here. Obviously excited, looking forward to Augusta, but I'm just taking it one step at a time. Q. What do you think will help grow the popularity of golf more in India? You participating in the Masters and The Presidents Cup this year, or the Olympics next year? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think it's very difficult to separate any of those events. To give you perspective, when I was growing up, the landmark events for golf in India was every time Jeev won globally, and when Arjun won Wyndham, it was massive. For people back home, when they actually see someone who has come from home, go out and actually achieve things that a lot of people in India don't think are possible, that's what inspires people back home. That's what grows the game. I think whether it's playing in the Masters or the Olympics or The Presidents Cup, I think more than just being a part of the people that make up the event, what matters more is how I play. I think just making up the numbers is not going to grow the sport for. For me to actually show up at Augusta and play some of my best golf and try and make something out of the event, that will probably grow the game more than just me playing in it, and that will go for any event. And I think that's more important than just playing. Q. I don't think Jeev or Arjun ever climbed as high as you have in the World Rankings. ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Jeev was 129. Q. Do you feel like you have a chance to take it to an even higher level and maybe grow it even more than those guys who got to Augusta before you but maybe didn't set the bar quite as high as you could possibly do? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Well, I'm not quite sure if I am the right person to comment about the seniors. They have always been inspirational to us. I would never put myself ahead of them. But you know, to put it in the words that Arjun put it to me, five months back when we were playing in Japan. He said, you know, we have done all these things that everyone looks up to. This is Arjun's words. He says, "You have the opportunity to do that at 27, 28. We did it at 35, 36. So you've got that much more time to out‑do us and out‑do yourself."  And I think that is probably the one thing that I have to take to heart, and I have to believe that, because I have that time. I'm getting the exposure, I'm getting the opportunities at a much younger age than they did and for me that is the greatest gift, time. That's something that they didn't have as much of as maybe I do. So how I utilize that, how I capitalize on that opportunity, is critical for me personally in my career, but also for someone to have that would be‑‑ is great for golf in India, as well. If I can make use of that and if I had really put my head down and focused and just concentrate on what I really need to do, which is to just play golf and keep improving, I think that is what will really, you know, have a byproduct in what you were asking me and having that ripple effect, the growth, setting the bar higher. I think they are all byproducts. If I can continue to go in the same direction and keep doing what I've been doing and improve, I think that will happen. Q. You've played with Tiger when he went to India‑‑ ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yes. Q. How did that come about and what exactly did that do for maybe inspiring you to go for your card in Europe? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Well, I guess a lot of people in America are now aware of Hero, which you see on my head and on my chest. The man behind the company, Mr. Pawan Munjal, he's been a pioneer for sport in our country. He's been one guy to back sports outside of cricket, which is like a religion. He was the man responsible for bringing Tiger to India and, a few months ago you had the Hero World Challenge and Tiger is now a brand ambassador for Hero. Fortunately for me, he kind of took me under his wing a few years back and supported me. Thanks to that, I got an opportunity to meet Tiger and play with him, and obviously it was a great experience for me. Like I just mentioned a few minutes back, I grew up watching him, idolizing him and wanting to be like him, like so many other millions of golfers my age. But to actually meet him when he was relaxed and having fun, and not in a tournament mode, how he gets when he gets focused, was really great. Because I could actually sit down and have a chat with him and get to know him, see how a man like him is, not necessarily how he is on the golf course, but what he thinks about life, how he approaches the game, and things like that. For me, that was very special, and that's not something a lot of people get to do. You know, you could play a round of golf with him in a tournament; you could play two, but you never know who Tiger Woods is. You know who he is as a golfer. You could see that on TV, and you probably see it from a closer perspective when you're playing with him. But to get to know him was very, very special. Q.  When you played in that first junior event at 12, did you have immediate success when you were playing against your own peers? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: No, not really. Not really. I mean, like I mentioned, I grew up playing on the golf courses that were attended by the Armed Forces, and they are purely recreational. They were never up to competition standards. So it's a funny story but the first time that I actually played a junior event, I got to the golf club, Royal Calcutta Golf Club, 1999, and I teed off on my practice round. My dad was with me obviously; I was 12. I walked down the fairway and my ball is lying on the fairway and I've got a 5‑wood or 3‑wood in my hand and I'm like, dad, how do I hit this, because I had never played a non‑preferred lie golf course. I had always teed the ball up two inches in the air because that's the kind of grass we had an the Army courses. Just to give you an idea of where I started and how it all kind of came together, it was very different. And to answer your question, I think there were eight of us and I came fifth or something like that. And it was fantastic. My dad, he's always been very inspirational. You know, he said to me, look at it this way, doesn't matter how you play. You're going to have the opportunity to play four days on such a beautiful golf course, which you won't get otherwise, so why don't you just enjoy yourself. I think that's the same attitude that I keep with me. Q. Quick question about inspiration. Who is the inspiration amongst the players on the Tour at the moment in your current age bracket? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I don't know about my current age bracket. I think it varies. I see some of the younger generation, the teenagers now, worship Rory and Rickie and all the young guys. But in my time, for me personally, obviously Tiger was Tiger. But apart from him, I really looked up to Jeev because he's probably one of the hardest‑working golfers that I've ever met in person. Vijay Singh was someone who I really looked up to for the kind of effort he put into his game, the kind of focus he always had. So for me, it was a combination. I never really doted over any one particular player. But I always respected different players for what they did better than everyone else, and tried to be like them in that aspect as much as possible. Q. When Nick was in here, he said he's particularly impressed by your putting. Is that what you needed to be good in to beat your dad way back when, or how did you become such a good putter? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Well, it's funny that you say that, because up until a few months back, I thought that was one of the weak links in my game. But I think I've worked on the mental aspect of putting, and it's kind of‑‑ I think it's improving. I still don't think I'm a fabulous putter. But a lot of people tell me that I can putt, so I think I should start believing them. Q. You mentioned you want to be out here. What kind of schedule do you have over here building up to the Masters, and what kind of other opportunities do you have to try to make that goal happen? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Well, I could get into a few events off my World Rankings, so I'm banking on that, and I'm also going to be writing to some of the TDs to get invites. I do go back home after this for about 2 1/2 weeks, and then I come back and spend about five or six weeks in America. Hoping to play Shell Houston Open the week before the Masters, Augusta obviously, RBC Heritage has got a top‑50 spot, so that would be fantastic. Going to be playing the Match Play at TPC Harding Park after that, and ideally, THE PLAYERS Championship after that. So five great opportunities for me, five great events. I'm going to be here all through April and early May. PAUL SYMES: Great stuff, many thanks again ANIRBAN, have a great week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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